This invention relates to an apparatus used during the medical infusion of fluids. Fluids are generally supplied to a patient during an operation or a minimally invasive procedure under the force of gravity by positioning a container containing the fluid at an elevated position relative to, the patient or, in the setting of arteriography, supplied with the aid of a pressure bag to ensure delivery fluid (also known as “flush”) against a significant pressure gradient. The rate of flow is set by a manually adjustable clamp positioned in the line between the bag and the patient. The fluid flows from the fluid bag to the patient via a drip chamber attached to the lower or outlet end of the fluid bag. The drip chamber includes a drop former which operates to generate discrete, successive drops which fall from the drip former into a reservoir defined at the lower end of the drip chamber from which the fluid flows to the patient via tubing. The drip chamber is transparent so that the drips may be observed by members of the health care team to insure that drippage is occurring and to further insure that the drippage rate is within appropriate, predetermined limits.
Some minimally invasive surgical procedures require a darkened operating room environment, particularly those wherein the surgeon visualizes the operation by an endoscope, a video, or an X-ray imaging monitor. When a procedure or treatment occurs in a darkened environment, it makes monitoring the drip chamber difficult. Because the surgeon or anesthesiologist must divide his or her attention between multiple technical and patient factors, the drippage flow must be readily visible from multiple angles to allow all members of the health care team to monitor drippage.
It is especially critical that a proper drippage rate be maintained and verified during trans-arterial neurointerventional procedures. These procedures require frequent adjustments of the drippage rate to balance the pressure gradient determining flow rate which itself depends on three fluctuating variables, the patient's blood pressure, the resistance within the catheter system, and the delivery pressure imposed by the pressure bag (which falls as the quantity of flush within the fluid bag is depleted). If the drippage rate is not closely monitored and adjusted during neurointerventional procedures, the loss of drippage flow during these procedures may allow arterial blood to enter a catheter, clot and embolize to a cerebral blood vessel resulting in a stroke which could be fatal to the patient.
There is therefore a need in the art for an illumination device which allows the drip chamber to be viewed from substantially any angle so that it can be monitored from various positions in the operating or treatment room.
Further, bubbles may be unintentionally introduced to the drip chamber reservoir with high rates of drippage flow, improper filling of the reservoir with either too much or too little volume, or with emptying of the fluid bag. The presence of bubbles within the reservoir poses a significant hazard to the patient undergoing neurointerventional procedures. Bubbles circulating in the drip chamber reservoir which are allowed to pass from the reservoir to the tubing typically pass through the catheter and into a brain artery and may result in a cerebral air embolism and stroke. This occurrence may also be fatal to the patient. Because bubbles in the drip chamber reservoir are typically in the millimeter range, such bubbles are difficult to identify even with normal ambient lighting.
There is therefore a need in the art for an illumination device configured to illuiminate the drip chamber reservoir in order to maximize the appearance of any bubbles that may have formed in the reservoir.
Neurointerventional procedures are often performed with multiple (in some cases as many as seven) arterial and/or venous flush lines making identification of which drip chamber is associated with which catheter difficult. Colored stickers affixed to the flush chambers aid identification, however, these stickers partially obscure the drip chamber and visualization of these stickers is difficult with low ambient light.
There is therefore a need in the art to provide an illumination device which may emit light of various colors in order to differentiate the drip chambers of multiple arterial and/or venous flush lines by color.
This application outlines a device which provides a novel, non-obvious solution to both the illumination and identification problems associated with visually monitoring drippage flow.